Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 16

Informatics in Education, 2018, Vol. 17, No.

1, 45–59 45
© 2018 Vilnius University
DOI: 10.15388/infedu.2018.03

An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning


Methodologies Used in the Introductory
Programming Courses at a Brazilian University

Edna Dias CANEDO1*, Giovanni Almeida SANTOS2,


Leticia Lopes LEITE1
1
Department of Computer Science, Building CIC/EST, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, Asa Norte,
University of Brasília (UnB)
P.O. Box 4466, Brasília-DF, CEP 70910-900, Brazil
2
Faculty UnB Gama (FGA), Software Engineering Course, University of Brasília (UnB)
P.O. Box 8114, Brasília, DF, CEP 72.444-240, Brazil
e-mail: {ednacanedo, giovannix, llleite}@unb.br

Received: December 2017

Abstract. The teaching-learning methodology adopted in the Introduction to Computer Science


classes may be a process that makes it difficult to understand the principles of programming
language for undergraduate students in Computer Science and related areas, generating high
failure and course drop out rates. This paper presents an analysis of the results obtained in the
Introduction to Computer Science classes taught in Computer Science and Engineering courses
at University of Brasília (UnB). The evaluation questionnaire answered by the undergraduate
students in 2017 was analyzed, a validation was performed, and we checked the level of students
satisfaction in relation to the evaluated subject and the association among the level of satisfac-
tion, the percentage of practical activities of the discipline, student performance and the level of
absenteeism.
Keywords: teaching-learning methodology, programming language, introduction to computer
programming, evaluation, failure, drop out.

1. Introduction

New software engineers and casual developers are needed in many different areas. How-
ever, students face many difficulties while learning the logic of computer programming,
frequently failing in university courses.

*
Corresponding author: ednacanedo@unb.br; tel.: +55-61-98114-0478
46 E.D. Canedo, G.A. Santos, L.L. Leite

The teaching-learning methodology adopted in the Introduction to Computer Science


classes may be a process that makes it difficult to understand the principles of program-
ming language for undergraduate students in Computer Science and related areas, gen-
erating high failure and drop out rates.
There are myriads of proposals and research related to the fields of Engineering,
Technology, and Education, with the objective of making available resources and con-
texts that help professors and students make learning more effective. As for the leaning
of programming languages, the advances in this research context are easily identifiable,
with countless tools and environments presented as proposals for better learning. The
works proposed by (Martins et al., 2010), (Edgcomb et al., 2017) and (Bosse and Ge-
rosa, 2017) present some of these tools and problems.
Regardless of the countless resources and tools in existence, at the University of Bra-
sília (UnB), we concluded that a high number of failing students in the basic program-
ming course is a reality for our undergraduate courses.
The results show that it is necessary to seek new teaching-learning proposals to
introduce the concepts of programming language for the students of Engineering (Au-
tomotive, Aerospace, Energy, Electronic, Electrical, Mechanical, Communication Net-
work, and Mechatronics) and Computing courses, seeking to reduce the number of
failures and dropouts.
This paper presents an analysis of the results obtained in the Introduction to Com-
puter Science (ICC), Basic Computing (CB) and Algorithms and Computer Program-
ming (APC) subjects, taught for these courses at University of Brasilia (UnB), between
2008.2 and 2017.1.
Besides that, a survey in the form of a questionnaire is also given to the students
of the current semester, 2017.2, regarding the teaching techniques adopted by the pro-
fessors of the subject, with the objective of identifying improvements in the teaching-
learning process.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the related
work. Section 3 presents the analysis of the scenario of the ICC, CB and APC subjects.
Section 4 presents the evaluation and analysis of results obtained with the survey given
to UnB students. Section 5 presents the conclusions and future studies.

2. Related Work

There are several studies to understand the difficulties faced by computer programming
learners. It is known that in the academia there is an intense effort by researchers and
professors to try to comprehend the reason behind the difficulty in learning program-
ming concepts. This difficulty of comprehension is an obstacle for an ever higher num-
ber of students, as presented by (Jenkins, 2002) and (Lahtinen et al., 2005). Not only
that, there is an effort from the leaders of Teaching Institutions and the Government to
provide better learning conditions throughout the undergraduate course. Moreover, there
has been much debate among computer science professors as to which programming
An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Methodologies Used in the ... 47

language should be taught to students; for example, adopting an object-first or impera-


tive first approach, as proposed by (Ehlert and Schulte, 2010).
In (Watson and Li, 2014), a systematic review of introductory programming litera-
ture is performed, in an effort to statistically consolidate further quantitative evidence on
the often cited worldwide high failure rates of programming courses.
The study of (Bennedsen and Caspersen, 2007) was based upon surveying the authors
of selected conference papers and performing a statistical analysis of the responses. The
study of (Watson and Li, 2014) was based upon performing a systematic review of the
literature on introductory programming courses and performing a statistical analysis of
the data extracted from relevant articles.
The study by (Hoffbeck et  al., 2016) describes the course that was developed to
introduce all first-year engineering students to the fundamentals of computer program-
ming within the context of solving engineering problems. The course was designed to
utilize active learning techniques by having the students complete a series of laboratory
exercises and projects that introduce computer programming and engineering applica-
tions. This study describes the origins of the course, the laboratory exercises and proj-
ects, how the course was administered, and an assessment of how successful the course
was based on student grades, student feedback, and a student survey. The results indicate
that the course increased students knowledge of programming in the context of solving
engineering problems.
Clearly, teaching effectiveness is a highly complex and very personal process involv-
ing a multitude of variables. The study presented by (Galbraith and Merrill, 2012) only
attempts to empirically examine the role of one possible factor, the level of faculty re-
search productivity. However, unlike the vast majority of previous empirical studies that
simply used student perceptions of teaching, they employed the results of a standardized
and quantified student learning outcome assessment process. Few, if any, empirical stud-
ies exist that utilize this type of school-wide standardized student outcome measurement
for teaching effectiveness.
In (Murphy et al., 2017) there is a report with the results of the first survey of intro-
ductory programming courses (Number of courses = 80) taught at United Kingdom (UK)
universities as part of their first year computer science (or related) degree programs,
conducted in the first half of 2016. It is a report on student numbers, programming para-
digm, programming languages and environment/tools used, as well as the underpinning
rationale for these choices. The results in this first UK survey indicate a dominance of
Java at a time when universities are still generally teaching students who are new to
programming (and computer science), despite the fact that Python is perceived, by the
same respondents, to be both easier to teach as well as to learn.
This survey presented by (Murphy et al., 2017) provides a starting point for valuable
pedagogic baseline data for the analysis of the art, science and engineering of program-
ming, in the context of a substantial computer science curriculum reform in UK schools,
as well as increasing scrutiny of teaching excellence and graduate employability for UK
universities.
In the governmental level, programs with social and digital inclusion policies are
offered, both for college and high school students. Other investments include renovat-
48 E.D. Canedo, G.A. Santos, L.L. Leite

ing the infrastructure of Universities, Federal Institutes, and Federal and Local Public
Schools, improving the technology and equipment of the classrooms and laboratories,
along with several programs to encourage teacher qualification. Even with the amount of
programs and research, there are still problems in learning programming.

2.1. Learning Programming Languages

At the UnB, there’s an agreement between professors and researchers involved with the
Intro to Programming subject that learning to program is not a trivial activity, since it
introduces a series of cognitive requirements to the daily life of the student, going further
than technical requirements.
In their majority, these cognitive requirements incorporate a need for the student to
change their way of thinking and acting in their academic life to a different reality than
the one they got used to during high school.
If we consider that they’re met with this different way of thinking in the first semester
of their course, changes need to be incorporated/absorbed in a short period of time, since
the subject lasts for a semester. The subject load is of 60 hours of class that usually begin
in March and finish in the end of June, or begin in August and finish in the beginning of
December of each year.
The cognitive requirements pointed out by (Wilson and Shrock, 2001) and (Wieden-
beck, 2005) are:
1) The resolution of problems is a competency that involves cognitive processes
such as creativity and rationality, through a set of mental meta-skills that some-
times go unnoticed, and which are supported by other skills, such as reading and
interpreting the description of a problem.
2) The full understanding of the requirements of a programming paradigm is not a
trivial activity, and entails an inherent degree of difficulty. This understanding
involves abstraction and problem-solving skills.
A majority of professors of programming subjects try to make the student understand
that to program is, first and foremost, an exercise of basic reasoning skills (reading, writ-
ing, and calculating) and mental skills (comparing, describing, interpreting, classifying,
and analyzing) that develop over constant practice and exercise. It is necessary to put
in a considerable amount of time to pass a programming subject, especially in the first
semesters of an undergraduate course.

3. Selected Analysis of the ICC, CB and APC Subjects

Teaching evaluation is described as the process whereby the quality of teaching is as-
sessed. This measure of assessment can be conducted using formative and/or summa-
tive approaches. In higher education, formative assessments of teaching are focused on
providing instructors/professors with information that can help them to improve their
teaching, as presented by (Pitterson et al., 2016).
An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Methodologies Used in the ... 49

3.1. Programming Subjects at the UnB

Several programming subjects are offered in the UnB courses. The first contact for the
student comes with the Intro to Computer Science (ICC) or Basic Computing (CB)
subject, which will be called Algorithms and Computer Programming (APC) starting
2015.2, even though it will maintain the syllabus and workload.
The subject program for the Technology/Engineering courses offered by UnB has
a set of differentiated subjects, but all programs offer the students plenty of subjects
of programming languages, besides the first ones (ICC, CB and APC). It is critical that
the student has a good understanding and comprehension throughout this first contact
with programming subjects. As such, understanding the teaching/learning process of
the first programming subject can help professors and students in the task of develop-
ing a more effective learning environment, this minimizing the difficulties found by
students in such subjects. This is the main contribution hoped to be achieved with this
study.
Fig. 1 presents an overview for the enrolled, passing, and failing students in the Intro
to Computer Science subject in Engineering courses at UnB. In the second semester of
2008 (2008/2), we had 251 enrolled students. In the first semester of 2013 (2013/1), we
had 408 students enrolled in the subject.
As can be seen in Fig. 1, in the second semester of 2008, the students a failure rate of
25% (2008/2). It can be seen that this rate went up with each passing term. In 2010/2, for
example, the failure rate was at 52%. In 2012/2, the failure rate was of 58%. In the term
in which the ICC subject was offered, 2013/1, this rate was at 54%.
Starting from 2013/2, the Intro to Computer Science was renamed to Basic Comput-
ing in all five Engineering Courses, namely: Aerospace Engineering, Automotive Engi-
neering, Energy Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Software Engineering.
Fig. 2 presents the number of failing and passing students in the second term of 2008
(2008/2) in the Computer Science, Computing, Electrical Engineering, Communication
Network Engineering and Mechatronics Engineering courses. The Computing course
had the highest student failure rate at 43%. The course with the lowest failure rate this
semester was Mechatronics Engineering at 4%.

Fig. 1. Registration, Failing and Passing Students in the Introduction to Computer Science.
50 E.D. Canedo, G.A. Santos, L.L. Leite

Fig. 2. Failing and Passing Students in the Computer Science, Computing, Electrical Engi-
neering, Communication Network Engineering and Mechatronics Engineering Courses.

Fig. 3 presents an overview of the second semester of 2013 (2013/2) in all Engineering
and Technology courses at UnB. In the Fig. 3, it can be observed that the Automotive En-
gineering course had the highest failure rate at 63%, followed by the Electronic Engineer-
ing course at 53%. The Computer science course had a failure rate at 46% and the Mecha-
tronics Engineering course had a failure rate at 44%. The Computer Engineering course
had a failure rate at 32%. The course with the lowest failure rate was Communication
Networks Engineering at 20%, followed by the Software Engineering course at 19%.
Fig. 4 presents the scenario obtained in the first semester of 2017 in Engineering and
Technology courses at UnB. In the Figure, it is possible to identify that the Automo-
tive Engineering course once again had the highest failure rate, 36%, followed by the
Aerospace Engineering Course at 27%. The courses with the lowest failure rate were
Computer Science, at 13%, and Software Engineering, at 14%.
The Brazilian framework established by the federal government is the National Exam
for Student Performance (ENADE), a component of the National System for the Evalu-
ation of Higher Education (SINAES) which, besides cognitive contents, also evaluates
the infrastructure and opens up space with some questions about the teaching-learning
process (Garrido et al., 2017). Since it is a tool that deals with the big picture, in order to
deal with the courses of various natures, it brings information with little specificity for
the evaluated Institutions. Even though there is a series of questionnaires available for
the evaluation of teaching, these tools prioritize the acquisition of global data on teach-
ing in these institutions, not focusing in the satisfaction of the student in relation to the
general and specific aspects of the subjects offered throughout their education.
The students satisfaction with a given subject, when reviewed in literature, regards
the subject as a whole, exploring aspects such as the infrastructure, the professor, teach-
An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Methodologies Used in the ... 51

ing strategies and methodologies, professor evaluation, different ways of grading in


tests and assignments, breaching psychological and skill aspects, as reported by (Cohen,
1981), (Al-Jishi et al., 2009) and (Kahneman et al., 1993).

Fig. 3. Failing and passing students in the Technology and Engineering courses in 2013/2.

Fig. 4. Failing and Passing students in Engineering and Technology Courses in 2017/1.
52 E.D. Canedo, G.A. Santos, L.L. Leite

4. Analysis of Results

The evaluation tool came to be thanks to the interest by some UnB professors, in 2017,
in knowing the level of satisfaction of UnB’s students in relation to the introductory pro-
gramming subject and in the potential of information that could be raised in a student-
focused subject evaluation.
A group of professors of UnB’s Software Engineering and Computer Science course
developed an internal tool to evaluate these subjects. The main advantage of creating
ones own questionnaires is that they can correspond to the college’s traits and necessi-
ties. After many literature reviews and group discussions, the first version of the tool was
tested and then made available for all students of engineering and technology courses.
The tool is a questionnaire (https://canedo.typeform.com/to/K2OrV5) that seeks to
assess the satisfaction of the student in relation to the different domains of the subject.
This includes an overview of the subject and various specific aspects of it, in a quantita-
tive way with open space for a qualitative expression. Thereby, as they evaluate the sub-
ject, the student actively participates in identifying the problem related to the high level
of failure and high dropout rates and, especially, in the discussion of possible improve-
ments. This allows the student to acquire ways of analyzing their action in a more criti-
cal manner, making them take a role of responsibility in the teaching-learning process.
(Moreno et al., 2007). To the university, it allows for the diagnosis of the status of the
discipline in the Engineering and Technology courses at the UnB, detecting its potential
weaknesses and strengths, problems, and successes.
At the launch of the questionnaire, there was considerable resistance by the faculty.
Many felt threatened, as they believed it would focus on investigating and punishing
them for their teaching roles; they believed the students wouldn’t be competent enough
to evaluate their teaching methodology, and so on.

4.1. Results

It is known that the student passing rate for a certain subject does not necessarily mean
that the teaching methodology or computational resources employed by the professor
are successful. Therefore, how to evaluate the success and benefits achieved in student
learning thanks to a certain teaching methodology?
As a way to evaluate the results achieved with the methodology adopted by the pro-
fessors of ICC, CB, and APC, some research questions were defined to compose an
investigative and evaluative questionnaire. This questionnaire was made available to all
students who had already taken CB, ICC or APC classes.
In total, 637 students answered the questionnaire. The obtained results were as
follows:

4.1.1. In Relation to the Subject Taken ICC/CB/APC


Of the total number of students who answered the questionnaire, 21% took ICC, 43%
took CB, and 36% took APC. This is the second semester in which it is offered in the
An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Methodologies Used in the ... 53

Fig. 5. Subject taken by five Engineering students.

Fig. 6. Algorithms and Computer Programming and Basic Computing Subject taken by students.

five undergraduate courses, namely: Aerospace Engineering, Automotive Engineering,


Energy Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Software Engineering. Fig. 5 repre-
sents this result.
Fig. 6 presents the same result for the other courses of the Computational Science
Department and the Faculty of Technology in the UnB. About 58% of the students took
the Algorithms and Computer Programming subject, and 42% took the Basic Comput-
ing subject.

4.1.2. In Relation to Finding the Subject Challenging, Considering Learning


and Passing Rates
Fig. 7 presents the results of the survey. 11% of the students considered the subject a
little challenging. 62% considered it to be one of the most challenging, and 27% consid-
ered it very challenging. Without a doubt, the subject is challenging for most students,
since some of them don’t grasp its real necessity for the course.
54 E.D. Canedo, G.A. Santos, L.L. Leite

Fig. 7. Students’ Answers to the Question: Did You Consider the Subject Challenging,
in Regards to Learning and Passing Rates?

Fig. 8. What programming language is used in class?

Fig. 9. Opinion of the students in regards to the methodology of the professor assigned
to the subjects.
An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Methodologies Used in the ... 55

Fig. 10. Problems that negatively impact learning.

4.1.3. What Programming Language is Used?


Fig. 8 presents the results obtained in relation to which programming language was
taught when the student took Intro to Programming. About 95% of the students learned
the C programming language, 3% learned Java, and 2% learned Phyton.

4.1.4. In Regards to the Teaching Methodology of the Professors Assigned


to the Subjects
Fig. 9 presents the results of student satisfaction in relation to the methodology adopted
by the professor in the subject. 23% agree that the professor assigned to either subject
has good teaching methodologies. 42% completely agree to the statement, 19% were
neutral, and 11% completely disagree with it. 5% disagree that the professor had good
teaching methodologies.

4.1.5. Listed Problems as Being Negatively Impactful in Students Learning


Fig. 10 presents the results related to this question. Within the listed problems, the ones
with the highest negative impact mentioned the students are: the professors methodolog-
ical aspects at 69% and the amount of students in the classes at 57%. Currently, classes
have between 40 and 60 students. 76% claim that internet access quality is a problem.
63% mentioned the obsolete machines found in the laboratories, while 69% blame the
course material made available by the professors, and 57% mentioned the lack of practi-
cal exercises. Lack of air-conditioning at 51%.

4.1.6. In your Opinion, is the Infrastructure (Laboratories) Provided by the


UnB a Good Environment to Take the Subjects?
Fig. 11 presents the obtained results about the infrastructure (laboratories) at UnB. About
18% completely agree, 45% agree, and 18% are neutral. Meanwhile, 16% disagree and
3% completely disagree that the infrastructure offered by the FGA is an adequate envi-
ronment for the learning of the subject.
56 E.D. Canedo, G.A. Santos, L.L. Leite

Fig. 11. The Infrastructure (Laboratories) Provided by the UnB a Good Environment
to Take the Subjects.

Fig. 12. The Support by the Assistants is Enough to Learn the Subject.

4.1.7. The Support by the Assistants Enough to Learn the Subject?


About 28% of the students completely agree and 29% agree that there is enough support.
18% are neutral about it. 7% completely disagree and 18% disagree that the support by
assistants is enough to learn the subject. Fig. 12 shows this scenario.

4.1.8. Is the Teaching Practice Adopted by the Professors Adequate to the


Level of Difficulty of the Subject?
In regards to the teaching practice adopted by the professors being adequate to the level
of difficulty of the subject, 30% of the students completely agree and 31% agree. 14% of
the students are neutral. 7% of the students completely disagree, and 18% disagree that
the teaching practice is adequate. Fig. 13 presents the results related to practice adopted
by the professors.
An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Methodologies Used in the ... 57

Fig. 13. The teaching practice adopted by the professors is adequate to the level
of difficulty of the subject.

5. Conclusion

Analyzing the information from the database of UnB’s academic system, it is possible to
see a high rate of failure in the ICC, CB and APC subjects.
The questionnaire allowed us to understand a bit more of this situation thanks to the
students answers.
The students considered the UnB infrastructure a negative factor that needs to be
remedied. There are many broken machines in the laboratories, which calls for an invest-
ment for better lab equipment. It is also necessary to rethink the number of students in
each class. A reduced number of students would allow for a closer and more personal
teaching practice by the professor and better, more efficient understanding by the stu-
dent. Besides, the material made available by the professors needs to be improved, add-
ing more practice exercises and their respective solutions.
Within the currently adopted practices, we can identify the ones that are well re-
ceived by students, such as:
1) The inclusion of assistants: 71% of the students claim they look for the assistants
to look for help with the subject.
2) Perception of the importance of the subject: 85% say that the Intro to program-
ming subject is very important for their course.
3) Related to the use of a methodology: 42% of the students assure they noticed that
the teacher used some teaching methodology or practice.
4) Leadership: 73% of the students believe the professor of the subject possessed
leadership in relation to the class.
5) Project: 65% of the students feel comfortable working in a research project under
the professor with whom they took the Intro to Programming subject.
6) Language: 59% of the students believe that the programming language used in
the subjected facilitated their learning process and understanding of the subject.
58 E.D. Canedo, G.A. Santos, L.L. Leite

It is worth remembering that this is an initial evaluation/monitoring, which we intend


to continue over the next ten years and establish if there was a change in the current
scenario. We will also check if the change in culture and teaching methodology brings
results, providing positive change in the subjects evaluation.
As future work, we aim to conduct further studies on failing and passing students, in
different contexts and different domains aiming at:
1) Analyze the teaching corpus education for the work with the APC, CB and ICC
subjects: seeking to identify the professor`s profile, good practices, and proposed
activities for the teachers who teach these subjects.
2) Analyze the kind of education that the student had through middle and high
school (such as the development of computational thinking, for instance) and the
reflexes of this education on the students’ journey.
The objective is to amplify this research and subsidize the elaboration of education
propositions (for professors and students), methodologies, resumes, supporting material,
infrastructure management, etc.

Acknowledgements

The authors of this paper would like to thank all the students of the University of Brasília
(UnB) who answered our survey and sent us reports and improvement proposals for the
research.

References

Al-Jishi, E., Khalek, N.A., Hamdy, H.M. et al. (2009). Students’ perceptions of the efectiveness of a profes-
sional skills program in preparation for clerkship training. Education for Health, 22(2), 57.
Bennedsen, J., Caspersen, M.E. (2007). Failure rates in introductory programming. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin,
39(2), 32–36.
Bosse, Y., Gerosa, M.A. (2017). Why is programming so difficult to learn?: Patterns of Difficulties Related to
Programming Learning Mid-Stage. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 41(6), 1–6.
Cohen, P. A. (1981). Student ratings of instruction and student achievement: A meta-analysis of multisection
validity studies. Review of Educational Research, 51(3), 281–309.
Edgcomb, A., Vahid, F., Lysecky, R., Lysecky, S. (2017). Getting students to earnestly do reading, studying,
and homework in an introductory programming class. Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical
Symposium on Computer Science Education, (), 171–176.
Ehlert, A., Schulte, C. (2010). Comparison of OOP first and OOP later: first results regarding the role of com-
fort level. Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer
Science Education, (), 108–112.
Galbraith, C.S., Merrill, G.B. (2012). Faculty research productivity and standardized student learning out-
comes in a university teaching environment: A Bayesian analysis of relationships. Studies in Higher Edu-
cation, 37(4), 469–480.
Garrido, S., Oliveira, K.M., Rezende, F.A., Funghetto, S.S., Griboski, C.M. (2017). A expansão da educação
superior no Brasil, a indução da qualidade a partir do SINAES e as novas perspectivas para a educação a
distância. Cadernos de Pesquisa: Pensamento Educacional, 10(25), 19–35.
Hoffbeck, J.P., Dillon, H.E., Albright, R.J., Lu, W., Doughty, T.A. (2016). Teaching programming in the con-
text of solving engineering problems. Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2016 IEEE, (), 1–7.
An Assessment of the Teaching-Learning Methodologies Used in the ... 59

Jenkins, T. (2002). On the difficulty of learning to program. Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of the
LTSN Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, 4, 53–58.
Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B.L., Schreiber, C.A., Redelmeier, D.A. (1993). When more pain is preferred to
less: Adding a better end. Psychological Science, 4(6), 401–405.
Lahtinen, E., Ala-Mutka, K., Järvinen, H. (2005). A study of the difficulties of novice programmers. ACM
SIGCSE Bulletin, 37(3), 14–18.
Martins, S.W., Mendes, A.J., Figueiredo, A.D. (2010). Comunidades de Investigação em Programação: Uma
Estratégia de Apoio ao Aprendizado Inicial de Programação. IEEE-RITA, 5(1), 39–46.
Moreno, L., Gonzalez, C., Castilla, I., Gonzalez, E., Sigut, J. (2007). Applying a constructivist and collabora-
tive methodological approach in engineering education. Computers & Education, 49(3), 891–915.
Murphy, E., Crick, T., Davenport, J.H. (2017). An Analysis of Introductory Programming Courses at UK Uni-
versities. Journal Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming – AOSA, 1(2), article 18.
Pitterson, N. P., Brown, S., Villanueva, K. A., Sitomer, A. (2016). Investigating current approaches to assessing
teaching evaluation in engineering departments. In: Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2016 IEEE.
1–7.
Watson, C., Li, F.W. (2014). Failure rates in introductory programming revisited. In: Proceedings of the 2014
Conference on Innovation & Technology in Computer Science Education. 39–44.
Wiedenbeck, S. (2005). Factors affecting the success of non-majors in learning to program. In: Proceedings of
the First International Workshop on Computing Education Research. 13–24.
Wilson, B.C., Shrock, S. (2001). Contributing to success in an introductory computer science course: a study
of twelve factors. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 33(1), 184–188.

E.D. Canedo holds a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Brasília
(UnB), Brazil in 2012. Master by Federal University of Campina Grande, (UFCG) in
Software Systems (2002). I’m graduated in Systems Analysis by University Salgado de
Oliveira; Goiás (1999). I’m Professor of the Computer Science Course at University of
Brasília – (UnB) since 2010. Her research interests include Informatics on Education,
Software Engineering, Cloud Computing and Software Systems.
G.A. Santos is a full time Professor at University of Brasilia (UnB), Brazil, since 2010.
He was a Professor at the Catholic University of Brasilia during 2003–2010. He obtained
his master’s in computer science in 2001 and currently is a PhD student at Electrical En-
gineering (UnB). His research interests include Informatics on Education, Collaborative
Learning, and Educational Robotics.
L.L. Leite holds a PhD in Computer Science and has interest in the following research
areas: Human-Computer Interaction and Computer Science in Education. She develops
projects related to the use of technologies to support teaching and learning, aiming to
decrease the  dropout rates in Computer Science courses. Her projects includes topics
such as Computational Thinking, Teacher Training, and Algorithms and Programming
Education.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi